CHAPTER SIX: MAKING AMENDS

The alarm clock blared loudly, pulling me back to consciousness. I groaned, rolled over onto my side, hit the snooze button, and switched off the alarm. I sat up on my bed and rubbed my eyes to help get rid of the fog out of my vision. When that was done, I looked at the clock and the time read 6:31 AM.

'Looks like today's the day,' I thought to myself. 'Time to get ready for the day.' I smelled myself and had to resist the urge to gag. 'But first, I need to take a shower. I'm not going to the Mega Pizzaplex smelling like sweat.'

Tossing the covers off of me, I hopped out of bed and walked over to the bathroom. I turned on the lights and stepped inside, slamming the door shut behind me. I surveyed the bathroom.

The bathroom was a medium-sized room with a black-and-white tiled floor, a small bathtub to the left of the room, a sink, a medicine cabinet above the sink, a small toilet, and a towel rack standing proud and tall over the toilet to the right of the room. It wasn't the greatest bathroom, but it was a bathroom nonetheless.

'Let's get this started,' I thought to myself, letting out a low sigh. Taking off my undergarments, I carefully stepped into the tub.

Once in, I turned on the water for the shower. I flinched slightly as the droplets of water hit my body. After a moment, I relaxed and began to clean myself off.

As I washed, I thought back to the nightmare I had a few hours prior. How I found myself at Roxy Raceway, seeing my sister's lifeless body lying in a pool of blood, Roxanne Wolf standing over Lisa's body, Roxanne's menacing purple eyes, and that bone-chilling voice that said 'I've been waiting for you… Patel'.

What did all of this mean, if it had a meaning anyway? I was probably overthinking again, but I couldn't help but get the strong and intense feeling that there might be a connection somehow. If there was somehow a connection, then how does it explain Roxanne's amber eyes being that shining and piercing light purple. I wasn't an expert on dreams, but I had a feeling that it might be connected to the voice that said those words before Roxanne charged at me.

That was ridiculous! Roxanne would never do something like that, let alone hurt a child. It wouldn't make any sense at all if she did in the first place. She was designed to entertain and protect children, not massacre them, like Jason Voorhees. There was no way that Roxanne would be capable of doing something like that. Unless… those purple eyes mean…

Did that mean that there was something evil somewhere in the Mega Pizzaplex? Something pure evil enough that it might be aiming to take control of Roxanne? Did it have any connection to my little sister's disappearance? So many questions, yet no answers.

I slapped myself across the face for thinking these thoughts.

'Don't be ridiculous!' I ridiculed myself. 'You're overthinking this! It was just a nightmare; nothing more! But what if… Oh, would you shut up, brain! You were about to make me overthink again!'

When I was officially done with my shower, I dried and wrapped myself in my towel and brushed my teeth. With that done and out of the way, I proceeded back to my bedroom and put on a fresh pair of undergarments from my underwear drawer. Looking through my dresser, I was lucky enough to find another long-sleeve shirt but unlucky enough to remember that I don't have any black pants.

'Looks like I will have to go clothes shopping once I have money in my pocket,' I thought to myself. 'But for now, let's see if I can find another pair of black sweatpants.'

I searched through my dresser, hoping to find at least one more pair of black sweatpants. I couldn't imagine coming into work wearing a pair of beige or gray sweatpants. That wouldn't look too good at all. I breathed a sigh of relief when I was able to find another pair of black sweats. I seriously hoped that Kyle would understand. Like for real, the last thing I needed was to lose this job because of wearing sweatpants.

'I can thank my inability to find a job for that crap,' I thought bitterly. With my choice of clothing, I put them on and grabbed a pair of ankle socks and put those on as well.

Now fully dressed, I walked over to the nightstand and pulled open the drawer where I placed the Faz-Watch that Kyle had given me. Somehow, I brought it home with me and I didn't notice until I went to wash my face the first time my subconsciousness reminded me of what happened. Something told me that I wasn't supposed to do that. I seriously hoped that I wouldn't get in huge trouble for bringing the watch with me.

Strapping the watch on my left wrist, I grabbed my keys and stepped out of the bedroom, closing the door behind me. I walked over to the front door when my stomach grumbled loudly. I thought about eating a quick breakfast before heading out but decided against it. If I could get to the Pizzaplex early before all of the guests come in, I should have enough time to apologize to Roxanne.

With that in mind, I walked out of the house, shutting the front door behind me, and walked over to my truck. I stepped inside and turned on the engine. I looked at the clock near the dashboard and it read 7:12 AM.

"That should be enough time," I said to myself before I pulled out of the driveway and drove to the Mega Pizzaplex.

I didn't know why, but something told me that today was going to be one heck of a first day. I could only hope that it would end on a good note, but if there was one thing I knew about life, it's to not get your hopes too high. You could never be sure about what today would bring and whatever it might be, you had to be ready for it.

I arrived and pulled into the parking lot of the Mega Pizzaplex at 7:27 AM, 33 minutes before my shift began. I parked in a spot that was closer to the entrance and turned off the engine. I rubbed the bridge of my nose and sighed.

There were so many ways that my apology to Roxanne could go down. She might listen to me, allow me to explain myself, and accept my apology. She might decide to ignore and give me the cold shoulder and pretend that I didn't even exist, which was probably going to be the result, in the end, no doubt. She might hear me out, but won't forgive me, thus eliminating any chances of befriending her.

Plus, I had no doubt that I was going to deal with Montgomery pretty much wanting to finish what he started yesterday. If he was still very angry and wanted to pound me to a pulp, I wasn't going to do anything to stop him. I was going to let him have his way and have his message be made very clear to me to never do something that stupid again.

I gulped harshly, not even the slightest bit ready for what would be going down when I came face-to-face with Roxanne and apologized to her face. This wasn't going to be fun, not a single bit. It didn't help that this could bite me in the ass pretty damn hard.

I sighed and stepped out of the truck. I walked over to the entrance and stepped inside. Once inside the building, that annoying feeling of amazement flowed through me. Like seriously, getting amazed by the Lobby was going to get old.

"Like seriously, Kyle, you've got to do something about that stupid robot!" shouted a male voice angrily. I looked to see two large men, both of them slightly muscular but looking different from each other.

One of them had messy coal-black hair, beige skin, a full beard and mustache, and light brown eyes. The other had a shaved head, slightly tan skin, no facial hair, and dark blue eyes. They both had an intense angry look on their faces and looked as though they might explode at any second now.

"What more can I do?" Kyle asked, sounding tired and annoyed.

"Oh gee, I don't know, maybe make her less of a FUCKING CRYBABY!" the one with the shaved head shouted angrily.

"You know I can't forcefully change her personality," Kyle insisted. "The company wouldn't appreciate that."

"We don't give a flying FUCK what the company doesn't appreciate or not!" the one with the messy black hair shouted. "We're sick and tired of having to hear that stupid and worthless wolf say 'I'm the best' and 'I'm beautiful' every 5 minutes! She has to be the most annoying and narcissistic piece of worthless metal we ever came across!"

"Yeah, I agree!" the shaved one added. "It's already bad that we have to deal with a bad-tempered alligator and a chicken who loves to eat out of the garbage cans, but it's a whole other level having to deal with an insecure little piece of shit!"

I felt a rush of hot anger flow through me. How could these guys be so cruel and say things like that about her?! Roxanne Wolf wasn't a worthless piece of metal; she was an advanced animatronic capable of showing and expressing emotions! It was bad enough that she had to go through with what I stupidly did on my first night shift, but Roxanne clearly doesn't deserve something like this!

My hands balled into fists and I felt the urge to walk over to those men and knock the teeth out of their mouths. However, a part of me was against this action. If I went through with it, there was no doubt I would lose my only job for resorting to violence. I had to think fast; I could tell that it was going to get much more heated if I didn't do something.

"Hey, Kyle!" I called out and they all turned in my direction. 'Wow, what a great idea you came up with, Mihael.'

The two men proceeded to glare daggers at me. I didn't know if they were trying to intimidate me, but if they were, they failed miserably. To me, they were glaring at me like how a five-year-old would glare at their parents for not getting their favorite snack or toy that they so dearly wanted. It was so ridiculous that I wanted to laugh loudly in their faces.

They looked away and focused their glares on Kyle.

"You better do something about her or we will," growled the messy black-haired man. With that, the two men turned and stormed out of the Pizzaplex, not paying me any mind. When they were gone, I walked over to Kyle, who was rubbing the bridge of his nose with the thumb and index fingers of his right hand.

"You okay?" I asked softly. "Who were those guys?"

"That was Ben and Ian," Kyle replied, his voice slightly tight. "The one with the messy black hair is Ben and the one with the shaved head is Ian. They're both brothers and the technicians that do maintenance work on our mascots. While they do get on my nerves when they complain about Roxy, they are pretty damn good at their jobs. They only get like that whenever they have to deal with her."

"Like that justifies them talking shit about Roxanne Wolf like that," I spat. "That was disgusting."

Kyle groaned. "I know that, but at least the only thing they do is complain about her. It could be worse."

My anger turned into curiosity in an instant. What was that supposed to mean? Did that mean that Roxanne Wolf had to face and deal with something far worse than two complaining technicians? If so, I didn't like the sound of that. At first, I wanted to ask but decided against asking him.

That was something I was going to have to ask Roxanne. I had a strong feeling that she wouldn't appreciate Kyle telling me about more of her problems, considering that she didn't react too well to me telling her about how I knew that she was insecure. If I wanted to know anything about that, I would ask Roxanne. No one else.

"Speaking of Roxanne, do you know where she is? I asked, remembering that I had to do something important.

"She's in her green room in Rockstar Row," he replied, his tone a bit calmer. He then sighed. "Be careful, Mihael. Roxy might very well be an emotional wreck right now and she certainly won't be pleased to see you. I wish you luck."

"Thanks, Kyle."

I took a deep breath and with every ounce of determination, I headed in the direction of Rockstar Row to set things right with Roxanne Wolf, and hopefully, nothing bad would happen.

I pushed the double doors open and stepped into a hallway. The hall itself was small with metal shelving units holding several paint cans and unopened boxes, a few tables with unknown materials strewed on its surface. There were loose papers scattered across the floor, along with some trash bags.

'What a mess,' I thought to myself. 'They can at least do a better job at keeping the area clean.'

The doors shut behind me with a click. Seeing this place looking so messy and dirty was very shameful. At least I don't leave my own house looking like a dump, aside from the dust. I had no idea how the clean-up crew, if there ever was one, could just leave certain areas like this dirty, but seeing it like this gave me the impression they were the kind that just didn't give a few fuck about their jobs.

The sound of something hitting the hard floor snapped me out of my thoughts, making me jump. I yelped and turned my head left and right frantically. I looked to the left one last time. As if from a horror movie, a paint can rolled into view and came to a sudden stop just a few inches from one of the metal shelving units.

I stared at the paint can, not sure what to do. A part of me was telling me to run out of there and never look back until I fully reach Rockstar Row. However, another part of me was telling me that there might be an intruder here. As a security guard, it was my job to check and search to see if there is someone or something there.

I gulped harshly as I slowly walked over to where the paint can was. My heart was beating rapidly and I felt beads of sweat form on my head as I inched closer.

'What are you doing?!' a part of me screamed. 'Get out of there as fast as you can!'

'Investigate,' another part of me urged. 'You have to ensure the safety of the building.'

I reached the paint can and looked down the hall. There was nothing. I didn't feel relief. I knew I had to check the entire hall. I walked to the other end of the hall, taking in slow, deep breaths to keep myself calm.

I was halfway down the hall when the sensation of being watched from behind washed over me. I stopped dead in my tracks, remaining still as a statue. Something in the back of my mind was telling me to not look behind me. The sensation of being watched from behind grew unbearable, and I did the opposite of what that part of me said.

I turned my head quickly and nearly screamed at the sight. There was something poking its head out from the other end of the hall, staring at me intently. I only saw it for a split second before it went away. I stayed where I was for a second before snapping out of my trance, and ran down the hall after it.

When I reached the end of the hall, I looked and saw nothing. A loud noise echoed throughout the room. That was enough for me. I ran out of the hall, pushing the other set of double doors open. Only when I was out of the hall and the doors closed behind me did I stop. I did my best to gather myself.

'Get a hold of yourself, Mihael,' I thought to myself. 'Your nerves must be getting the better of you. I probably saw something that wasn't truly there.'

That thought helped me get a hold of myself. Pushing what happened out of my mind, I began walking, continuing my trek to Rockstar Row to apologize to Roxanne.

I entered Rockstar Row and began heading over to Roxanne Wolf's green room. My heart began racing in my chest and my head became wet with sweat. I began taking deep breaths to keep myself calm as I inched closer to my destination. Kyle's words telling me to be careful didn't really help my case.

I was aware that I had to be very careful when I tried to apologize to Roxanne. Since she was supposedly an emotional wreck, it could very well not end on a good note for me. The best thing I could do was let her let it all out and hope for the best. If that works, then I might be able to deliver my apology and hopefully start fresh with her. In this situation, her emotions would be the ones talking, not her.

As I finally reached her green room, the most heartbreaking sound of loud sobbing vibrated from the other side of the door. I felt my heart threaten to shatter at the sound. It was like Roxanne was experiencing heartbreak for the first time.

"I'm not worthless!" she cried out. "Those technicians don't know what they're saying! I'm the best! Everyone loves me! They all love me! They don't think I'm worthless… right? They love me… right? They think I'm the best… right? Right?"

There was a moment of silence before she resumed sobbing. All of the things she said reminded me of what happened with those two nasty technicians earlier. I got the sudden feeling that they said all those things to her with the intention of upsetting or even breaking her. It had to be a mixture of both because Roxanne was breaking and worst of all, it sounded like her fears were feeding off of her.

I couldn't listen to it anymore. With every ounce of determination, I knocked on the door. Roxanne's sobbing stopped and silence filled the room.

"Who is it?" I heard her growl angrily.

"Roxanne Wolf, it's me, Mihael, the new security guard," I announced. "I can see that this really isn't a good time, but I need to talk to you. It's about what happened the other night."

Silence filled Rockstar Row and I was beginning to worry that Roxanne might be ignoring me and pretending I wasn't there, something that I had a feeling was going to happen anyway. I had hurt her, so this was pretty much expected from her.

"Go away," she growled. "I don't want to talk to you."

I mentally sighed. Kyle did say that she wasn't going to be pleased, but I had to give it a try. I couldn't just walk away without giving it some effort.

"Roxanne-"

"I said GO AWAY!" she shouted. I flinched, debating whether I should or not. I threw that thought away. I wasn't going to walk away and let her suffer like this. I made a very grave mistake that night and I was going to fix it.

I put my best-determined look and glared defiantly at the door.

"No."

There was a brief moment of pause, and I began to wonder what she was going in there.

"Excuse me?" she hissed. "I said I don't want to talk to you. Just go away."

"And I said no," I said with defiance. "I'm not going to walk away and leave you to wallow in your sorrows like this. Open the door so we can talk in person."

"Why? So you can rub it in my face on how weak I am?" she growled once again. "You already know about my problems so go on and tell me how much of a loser I am! You must think I'm a loser anyway!"

This time, I felt my heart shatter at those words. Roxanne really believed that I thought of her as a loser because of her insecurities alone. I felt an overwhelming sense of sympathy as I could connect with her in a strong sense. I never told anyone any of my problems as I didn't want to be seen as weak.

I took a deep breath. If I was going to get Roxanne Wolf to trust me, I was going to do two things. The first to be honest with her and the last one being the one thing that I never thought I see myself doing. I had no choice; I had to do it.

"Roxanne, I don't think you're weak for how you feel," I said softly. The crying stopped and a moment of silence followed.

"W-what?" she stuttered, her tone sounding confused. "You're lying. You have to be."

"I'm not lying to you, Roxanne," I insisted softly. "Feeling insecure is normal and you're not the only one to go through it. I myself know how that feels because I can be insecure too. Just because you're feeling this way doesn't make you weak. Honestly, it's ironic for me to say this considering I never liked talking about my problems since I feel like it makes me weak."

I waited for a minute, wanting to see how Roxanne Wolf is taking all of this. It didn't take too long before I heard the sound of loud footsteps approaching the door. They stopped, just as the door opened and stood Roxanne Wolf, both of her cheeks black as a result of her oily tears trailing down her face. She looked as though she was going to burst at any second.

"I don't understand," she said, her voice filled with emotions. "How is feeling this way normal?"

"It shows that we're not perfect," I explained. "The world would be so boring if we didn't have any flaws. Having flaws of our own is what makes us normal, makes us unique and different from the others. Your insecurity isn't just a flaw of its own; it's a part of you. It's what makes you unique from the rest of the world. Speaking of that, I want to apologize for going too far on what I said to you.

"I genuinely thought that by saying that, it would get you to open up but it did the opposite. I hurt you in ways that were unacceptable. It was wrong and stupid of me to do. I always try to do what I believe is right, only for it to blow up in my face because I didn't think about it a bit more thoroughly. I shouldn't have said anything, but I did because I didn't think about the consequences. It still doesn't really excuse my actions, though."

I took a deep breath and looked Roxanne in the eyes. "Roxanne, I'm so sorry for going too far. I understand if you don't want to forgive me. I don't deserve it."

I waited, worried, but also relieved to let all of that out. It felt really good to be free from the burden of it all. I watched Roxanne's face very closely so I could study her reaction.

At first, Roxanne did nothing. She proceeded to stare at me with wide eyes, the wolf in a state of shock like she was processing everything I said to her. Then, she started shaking, her lower jaw beginning to quiver. Oil began to build up in her eyes as she began letting out low whimpers.

I began to feel uneasy. I began to hope that I didn't screw this up. If I did, then there was no way I would be able to get along with her. She took a step closer, and I felt my fight-or-flight instincts kicking in.

"Hey, what are you doing?" I asked, a touch of unease in my voice. "Look, I understand if you don't-"

Roxanne lunged at me, and I shut my eyes tightly, waiting for what was coming. Instead of pain, I felt something wrap itself around me. I opened my eyes to see Roxanne Wolf with her arms wrapped around me. I didn't know how to respond at first before it clicked.

I smiled gently, letting out a soft, relieved sigh as I returned the hug. Roxanne began sobbing as she tightened her hug, but thankfully to the point where she wouldn't crush me. I was so relieved and happy she had forgiven me. There were so many ways this could have gone, but it looked as though life has given me a second chance.

"That's it, Roxanne, let it all out," I said comfortingly as I began patting her back. That seemed to make her cry harder as the wolf was now letting it all out. I shed a few tears of my own, joining her at this moment.

It took a while for Roxanne Wolf to regain control of herself. When she did, she mimicked the sound of sniffling and released me from her hug. I did the same and she straightened her posture. I watched her as she wiped away her oily tears.

"Feeling better?" I asked.

"Y-yes," she replied weakly. "Thank you, Mr. Patel. I never realized how much I really needed that."

"No problem," I said. "It was the least I could do."

Roxanne smiled and I couldn't help but smile too. I had to admit; her smile was pretty cute. Plus, it was nice to hear that my words helped her in the end. Best of all, all of my other previous fears of the worst possible scenario happening, like her ignoring me and pretending that I didn't exist.

Plus, I felt much lighter, as if a huge weight had been lifted off of me. I felt like a new man, free from the guilty and learning from this experience. I was going to make sure that I never did something that stupid again, keep information like that to myself, and think much more thoroughly before acting.

"Well, now that everything's good, let's start over," I said, holding out my right hand. "Name's Mihael, Mihael Patel."

Roxanne proceeded to stare at my hand for a moment. I was beginning to think that she wasn't going to take my hand, just like the previous night. Then, I watched the smile on her face grow as she accepted, and we shook each other's hands.

"I'm Roxanne Wolf," she said, sounding a bit prideful. "My friends call me Roxy."

My smile grew, realizing that everything between me and Roxanne was going to be okay from now. Well, the only problem now was that I was going to deal with Montgomery's wrath at some point. Even though I had apologized to Roxanne, I still had to face the consequences and I was ready to deal with them, whatever they may be. I was going to take them as a man, not run away from them like a coward.

Eventually, we let go of each other's hand and I looked at Roxanne's oil-soaked cheeks. There was no way I was going to let her start the day looking like that. I couldn't imagine the outcome if people saw her like that. They didn't know about her problems, so I was going to make sure that it stayed that way.

"Um, why are you staring?" she asked. I snapped out of it and looked her in the eyes.

"Well, it's because your face is soaked with oil," I replied. "I sure as hell can't have you walking around looking like that. Wouldn't look too good for you."

She chuckled. "I guess you're right."

I chuckled as well. Something deep down told me that today was going to be a great day. I could only hope that it would be.

Author's Note:

This chapter was another one I had in mind when I came up with this story. I'm awful sorry if I failed to make this scene emotional. That's something I have a hard time working on. If I somehow succeeded, which I doubt I did, that's a win in my book. I also hope that I didn't rush Mihael and Roxanne to make amends.

The thing about this chapter was that it was a little easy, but it had its difficult moments. Also, those technicians are going to be huge problems for the heroes at some point, but I won't say how. ;)

I'm not sure how long Chapter Seven might take. My guess is that it might take about a week since I plan for it to be a bit longer than our current chapters. It's only a guess, so if it does happen or it takes longer than a week, please be patient. I don't work well under pressure so giving me time will help me a lot. I hope you guys understand. :)

That's all. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. All constructive criticism is appreciated, and I will see you guys in Chapter Seven! :)

Update: Added more content, fixing some things too. :)

Update 2: Added new content.